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While NEH is the primary federal funder of humanities activities, the field receives funding from a large number of other federal departments and agencies. This indicator identifies key budget lines that provide support for humanities work, and it describes the trend in funding from fiscal year (FY) 2008 to the president’s request for FY 2019.

IV-02a: Federal Support of Humanities Activities, Fiscal Years 2008–2019 (Adjusted for Inflation)

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a. Javits was the only Department of Education program that awarded fellowships to graduate students in the humanities specifically. Javits, but not its budget, was folded into GAANN, which is focused on awarding grants to students in STEM subjects.
b. The Title VIII program was an important factor in the development of Soviet and other East European expertise. Beginning in FY 2013, the program received no funding, but it continues to exist.
c. No appropriation was made specifically for this purpose in FY 2008, but the amount indicated was spent out of the agency’s administrative budget on “library policy, research, and statistics” activities.
d. The amounts given are for salaries and expenses only.
e. The appropriation for FY 2008 includes funding for the National Postal Museum.
f. Appropriation included in that for the National Museum of American History.

Source: Publicly available agency budget justification documents, omnibus appropriations legislation for FY 2018 (164 Cong. Rec. H2045-902 (March 22, 2018)), and, in a small number of cases, agency staff. Funding amounts were adjusted for inflation using the Gross Domestic Product Implicit Price Deflators produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis; and “Projected GDP Deflators for Baseline Countries/Regions 2010–2030 (Updated: 12/6/2017)” (produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/ 51832/ProjectedGDPDeflatorValues.xls?v=43075, accessed 5/9/2018).

Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

Given the wide ambit of the humanities, discerning which budget lines ought to be treated as humanities-focused can be challenging. In making a determination, the Humanities Indicators excluded programs and departments where a significant portion of their budget was allocated to nonhumanities activities.

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